Prepared-ness

So many people are talking about "how prepared are we for when the unexpected happens?" The unexpected could be unemployment, grid collapse, or somewhere in between.

Let me try and compare where we are now, to where I'd like to be a year from now. N.B. -- my estimates are VERY rough.

FOOD
Now

-- protein: we have probably 3 months of dried beans in house, 1 month of dried lentils, and 1 month of frozen meat, plus 4 cans of SPAM. >.>

-- grain: we have frozen english muffins (and coupons to get 12 more), and probably 6 months of rice, we also have flour for bread to last 3 months

-- vegetables: not so good; we have a few bags of frozen veggies, and very little else. Some dried peas maybe. Some tomato sauce.

-- fruits: we have applesauce to last 2 months, jam for 2 months, and canned fruit for about 2 months.

-- dairy: we have cheese to last maybe a month -- we're a cheese loving place. We also have powdered milk.

A Year From Now

-- protein: we will have close to a years worth of dried beans. We will also have chickens that we could eat.

-- grain: as I will not be growing any, we will still be dependent upon buying rice in bulk, and flours in bulk. So that should stay the same

-- vegetables: we should have canned beans, tomato sauce, salsa, and all sorts of goodies to last for at least 3-6 months.

-- fruits: will not be growing any, so it will still be storebought applesauce, jams, and canned fruits (unless they're on WICKED sale), but I should double the numbers we have at least.

-- dairy: we will have chickens, so hopefully we will have eggs on a regular basis, but cheese and such will still be storebought. And only cheese lasts any length of time. We do have powdered milk, but that should really only be used for cooking.

Also, we'll hopefully keep 2-4 weeks of cat food and chicken feed in the house.

HOUSING
Now

Currently, one of my housemates is paying the bulk of the rent, as he has the bulkiest job (compared to my minimum wage/25-30 hour a week job and my other housemates student loans...).

We pay our heating through a combo of state aid and student loans. We have natural gas.

We pay our electric with student loans.

I think the gas for the stove goes in with heating...?

A Year From Now

Hopefully, more than one of us will have money with which to pay rent. We might also take in more roommates to pay said rent (will need to be broached with the LL carefully -- but I can handle that).

I don't necessarily see how we pay for the utilities changing, but we might work on getting a solar oven for summer, or at least grilling during the summer and/or winter. I'm not sure of the efficiency of the grill vs. our stove...

WATER
Now

Right now we use the water from the tap and have maybe 6 gallons in storage.

A Year From Now

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/safewater/

With a ridiculously over-the-top domain name, this site none-the-less gave me the answer I needed of how much water to store. 1 gal/day/person. And they recommend storing 2-4 weeks. That's 42-90 gallons in storage. Hopefully we'll also have rainfall catching equipment.

TRANSPORTATION
Now

Right now, I use public transit usually, BF uses his car, one housemate uses his bike, and the other taxis or public transit. Or our feet.

A Year From Now

This is another item that I don't particularly see changing -- except maybe to get a cart to attach to the bike!



Hmm... there's so much to still do, and so much that even a year from now I won't have set up. Can I have my pretty manor house in the country now? Pretty please?